take your content global — content globalization, the final frontier with felice schulz

10.2.15

Content Globalization… the Final Frontier

By Felice SchulzTwitter: @FeliceMSchulz

Content Globalization: the final frontier. These are the voyages of

the Enterprise Content Strategist…- Adapted from Captain Kirk, Starfleet Command

@FeliceMSchulz#IDW2015

3

Whether you have 2 or 44 locales you are dealing with… you need a Global Content Strategy

© 2015 SAPIENT CORPORATION 4

Today we will cover

1. Going Global2. Globalization 1013. Strategic Considerations4. Tactical Considerations

© 2015 SAPIENT CORPORATION

Content Globalization: The final frontierGoing Global


.

Today you need a Global Presence


The Internet is becoming the town square of the global village of

tomorrow- Bill Gates


OUR GOAL AS CONTENT GLOBALIZATION EXPERTS:

Efficiently leverage businesses content and resources to effectively meet the needs of globally diverse

sets of digital consumers


Globalization What is Important?


GlobalizationWhat is Important?

What is Difficult?


Globalization

What is Important?

What is Difficult?

What does Success look like?


Where do we start?


02Globalization AcademyGlobalization 101


Globalization Lexicon

• What is it: Globalization• Where is it:–Market–Region–Locale

• How is it done:–Translation–Localization–Transcreation


Mission plan

GlobalizationThe strategy and process of setting up a global digital presence: platform and especially content that performs globally:– in multiple regions– for multiple markets– in multiple languages


Set Course

MarketA distinct group of an audience that may be based on:–Business POV or–User POV


Set Course

RegionA business-focused area of the company’s global presence.–A region can comprise one or

more markets, in a certain large geographical area of the world.–A region is typically (but not

always) “run” by a single, centralized office.


Set Course

LocaleA specific published instance of the site in a particular language. – Often used interchangeably

with “country”, but… – A locale is defined more by

language and content set and may be any of these:• one country / one site • one country / multiple sites • one site applicable to several

countries or markets


The Away Team

TranslationThe process of translating content (words) so that it is in the language of a given region, locale, or market.

- Typically a direct correspondence between content in other languages.

- Includes minor adjusting, turns of phrase, slang and other “intangibilities


The Away Team

Localization… the big issue!The process of not just translating content, but somehow modifying or adapting to make it distinct for one or more locales (or regions or markets).


The Away Team

Transcreation*The process of creating unique content for a particular locale and culture (or region) typically to evoke a specific emotional response where the original might not translate. Such as recreating a targeted, culturally-appropriate campaign (words and images).

* Global Content Strategy: A Primer, Val Swisher, XML Press, 2014


The Away Team

Transcreation*• Why do we transcreate, even though it

can be more expensive? It may be necessary to ensure a campaign is successful in each locale. Choose what to transcreate carefully.

• More of a content development process than a translation or basic localization process.

• Transcreation includes the words and images and may also include layout changes.

• Successful transcreation requires a cohesive global content strategy.

• You need to manage transcreated content to ensure trademarks are correct, messages are on target.

* Global Content Strategy: A Primer, Val Swisher, XML Press, 2014


A common lexicon is not enough


A common lexicon is not enough…

We need a common process


Globalization Process


03Strategic ConsiderationsOur mission: to explore strange new worlds; toseek out new content and new audiences; to boldly go where no content strategist has gone before


Our mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new content and new audiences; to boldly go where

no content strategisthas gone before..

- Adapted from Captain Kirk, Starfleet Command


Project Mission

A GLOBAL MODEL:• Addresses the organization, needs, and

relationships of the business in the different regions, serving the needs of various markets / locales.

• Responsive to High-Level Business Needs

• This model is a combination of:

- The Structural Model – the structure of the content across the various globalized platforms: what is needed where, how is it similar, how is its different (based on answering the strategic “why”)

- The Governance Model – the processes for developing, maintaining and sharing content across the global presence (based on answering the strategic “how”)


Landing Party

When determining a Globalization Strategy, first consider the high-level business needs:

What are the business’ strategic goals in terms of globalization?

What is the base content and how does it serve / achieve those goals?

What is the geographical scope of the platform(s)? What regions and locales? What languages are needed to support this scope?

What are the audiences that need to be addressed? Do they differ across locales?


Landing Party

When determining the Structural Model consider: What content is offered in the different regions

and/or locales? What content can be shared across regions

(and/or locales) with only translation? Where and how is the content different?

Modified? Entirely different sets? Some “held back”?

To what extent do the sites need localized content? To what extent do the sites need transcreated content? How should different locales correspond in terms of brand character, structure, individual content items?

What are the content types that need to be converted/adapted by locale?


Plot a course

When determining the Governance Model consider: Why and how does regional or locale

management differ? What processes and tools will be used

for translation? How do we maintain content? How do we determine what new

content is needed? Which Governance Structure to

implement?:

– Centralized– Federated– Hybrid


Plot a course

A single, central source of content and control. The “home office” or “primary region/locale.”

Centralized:


Plot a course

Multiple, separated sources of content and (especially) control: distinct self-regulating regional offices.

Federated:


Plot a course

Leverages capabilities and attributes of each model.

– Use centers of excellence and regional teams to group expertise at levels above individual businesses

– Use central team for larger project and content that needs to be consistent across regions

– Use regional/locale based teams for smaller projects and localized content

Hybrid:


04Tactical Considerations Make it so…


Make it soTactical Considerations:• Global-ready Content

• Translation

• Design

• Content Management Systems


Make it so

Global-Ready Content Considerations*:If you are writing copy knowing it will be translated, consider the following to make it global-ready. It can save your money, time and improve quality: Write shorter sentences: long sentences are difficult to

understand in original language and are more difficult to translate. Recommendation is 26 words per sentence.

Write less content. Remove needless words

Instead of “our software works on a variety of platforms” try “our software works on various platforms”

Say the same thing, the same way every time: This keeps your translation costs lower, since once a phrase is translated and in translation memory it costs less to translate. Pick one: such as “Click Ok”, “Press the Ok button”, “Select OK”.

Avoid idioms and jargon: because you have no idea how that can throw a wrench into the translation process.

Use correct grammar. Don’t forget that you may need to have different images for

the same content.* Adapted from Global Content Strategy: A Primer, Val Swisher, XML Press, 2014


Make it so

Translation Considerations: Who is translating?

• Internal, leveraging SMEs: provides the best opportunity to ensure business specific nuances are addressed. Easy to maintain a single Translation Memory.

• Language Service Provider(s): Highly trained translation specialists, it’s their only job. If you use multiple services, you should maintain a single Translation Memory for consistency and to reduce your costs.

• Machine translation, such as Google translate or translations modules in CMS. Provides the least accurate translation. It still requires a human to review and approve. May result in more rework cycles.

What are you translating?

• Know what content you want to translate vs. transcreate.

What are your processes?

• Know how the translation process fits into your larger content globalization process. The majority of globalization tasks are typically not related to translation.

Ideally all content should be available by locale in the local language but there are exceptions that can be accounted for


Make it so

Design Considerations:The design will need to accommodate for the various language needs Know your content: min, max and average

length of content chunks for each language. Language length impacts display requirements. Just as too much text can be problematic so to can too little text.

How many template variations will be needed to accommodate the locales? Additional sets of templates will be needed for right to left languages like Arabic and Hebrew, etc.

Which languages will you use to test? Take into account comparative lengths when deciding what languages to use to test the templates.


Make it so?

Design Considerations:

://www.yetanothertechblog.com/2013/12/27/l10n-string-length-and-verbosity-across-languageshttp://www.yetanothertechblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/comparison_gaia.png

“Why using English as a reference for designing UI may not be a great idea”.

http://www.yetanothertechblog.com/2013/12/27/l10n-string-length-and-verbosity-across-languages

http://www.yetanothertechblog.com/2013/12/27/l10n-string-length-and-verbosity-across-languages

http://www.yetanothertechblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/comparison_gaia.png




Make it so

Content Management Systems:Technical capability of the CMS and web platform must also be considered as they impact the ease/cost of stakeholder groups maintaining the sites. Will there be a master site and inheritance? What will be inherited? How are locales and languages supported? How many and how to manage the CMS elements by

which content is entered, maintained, and published. Especially if they vary by region or locale.

How will the CMS support the workflows for globalization of content?

Who gets what permissions?

And any other tools needed to manage the creation and maintenance of content


06Questions & DiscussionNot even content strategists can know the un-known

take your content global — content globalization, the final frontier with felice schulz

Technology